Put all MLK records online, Kerry says

Reading all government records on Martin Luther King Jr.’s life and death should be as easy as clicking a computer mouse, U.S. Sen. John Kerry says.

U.S. Sen. John Kerry

“One of the best ways to honor the memory of Dr. King is to ensure that future generations will be able to learn from this incredible leader,” wrote the Massachusetts Democrat.

In a letter Tuesday, Kerry told David Ferriero, archivist for the United States, that he is writing an appropriations request for legislation that would authorize the National Archives to collect all federal, state and local documents on King.

“I now believe with the clock ticking, the urgent legislative need is to provide you, as quickly as possible, with the resources you need to finish the job you have been doing before any papers are destroyed or lost forever,” Kerry wrote.

He asked Ferriero to let him know how close National Archives is to having a complete file on King’s records and what resources the office needs to make that happen.

Ferriero couldn’t be reached for comment, but Stuart Wexler, a researcher on the King assassination, estimated that National Archives may already have more than 90 percent of the files on the FBI investigation, code-named MURKIN.

Many of the MURKIN files, however, are redacted.

What makes those redactions so frustrating “is that the government often insists that researchers provide proof of death for these redacted names,” Wexler said. “How can we do that if we do not know the names in the first place?”

Alvin Sykes

Kerry has previously proposed a five-member independent review board that would identify and make public all documents from agencies including the FBI — just as a review board in 1992 made public documents related to the 1963 John F. Kennedy assassination.

Alvin Sykes of Kansas City, architect of the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crimes Act, and Hank Klibanoff, managing editor of the Cold Case Truth and Justice Project, both believe Kerry’s idea should be expanded to include the release of documents involving other racial slayings from the civil rights era.

Whitney Smith, press secretary for Kerry, said there are no plans at this time to expand the King legislation to include other cases.

Wexler said opening the files of other cases actually helps to shed new light on the King assassination because those files are filled “with background information not available in the MURKIN collection. Beyond the purpose it would serve for researchers, it would align with the spirit of justice of Dr. King himself.

“There was a reason that the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan of Mississippi killed other people to lure King to their state for an attempted murder — they were well aware that King wanted justice in these crimes and would risk his own safety to get it. It is hard to imagine that Dr. King would not want those files released in his name with the hope that civilians and investigators can solve them before the perpetrators die.”

About The Author

Jerry Mitchell, an investigative reporter for The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss., runs Journey to Justice, a blog that explores the intersection of justice and culture in this place we call the United States​. His work has helped put four Klansmen behind bars, including the assassin of NAACP leader Medgar Evers in 1963 and the man who orchestrated the Klan’s 1964 killings of three civil rights workers. His latest stories have helped lead to the arrest of serial killer suspect Felix Vail — the last known person seen with three women. Mitchell, a 2009 MacArthur fellow, is writing a book on cold cases from the civil rights era.